A blind woman described as a ‘pillar of her community’ was one of three pensioners who died after suffering falls at home, a coroner ruled.

Glenda Line, 93, Richard Vought, 76, and Godfrey Shirt, 86, all died at Royal Berkshire Hospital between December 2009 and February 2010.

Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford recorded a verdict of accidental death at each of the three separate inquests into the circumstances surrounding their deaths at Reading Civic Centre on Tuesday, July 20.

He concluded each of the patients had died from a traumatic subdural brain hemorrhage caused by them banging their head as they fell.

Mrs Line struck her head on a radiator and badly hurt her arm but was not concussed by the fall at her house in Ferry Road in South Stoke, near Wallingford, on December 20.

She was blind with a hearing impairment and the next morning at Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) she was cross with herself as she had not slipped or tripped in nine years.

She was kept in hospital overnight but her condition deteriorated and palliative care was given until she died on December 23.

Mrs Line regularly attended St Andrew’s Church in South Stoke and had celebrated her platinum wedding anniversary two months before she died.

In the February edition of the South Stoke Newsletter, close friend Maureen Parker paid tribute to the “special friend” and “pillar of our small community” she had known since the couple moved to the village in 1973.

Mr Vought, of Hawthorn Gardens, Whitley, had a history of falls in his latter years and had complained of headaches and feeling disorientated.

In the early summer of June 2009 he slipped while putting out the bins and hit his head on a concrete slab and initially refused to go to hospital.

He eventually attended the RBH before being placed in a nursing home to convalesce before Christmas but after returning home in January he fell and struck his head again.

Neurosurgeons considered operating but were uncertain if he would survive the procedure, and if he did it would not necessarily improve his mobility.

The family agreed he should remain in palliative care until he died on January 9.

Daughter Katrina Brown, 38, of Dawlish Road, Whitley, said: “Dad was always very cheery and was well-liked by everybody and loved by his family. We all miss him.”

Mr Shirt died on February 14 after falling at Thatcham Court Nursing Home, where he lived with his wife Joan having previously run a farm near Chichester, West Sussex.

He was found by a carer a few days earlier and taken to the RBH where a CT scan revealed old and new fractures which had each caused a haemorrhage.

Although a pathologist was uncertain which bleed had led to Mr Shirt’s death, Mr Bedford said the balance of probability suggested it was the one caused by the fall at the nursing home.

Mr Shirt’s son David, 62, from Church Road, Aldermaston, said: “He was very much a country man and had lived on a farm almost all his life.

“He was very generous and had a real love for his family and was adored by all of us.”